Avevo

Avevo is the first-person singular imperfect indicative form of the Italian verb avere, meaning “I had” or “I used to have.” It is commonly used as an auxiliary to form the pluperfect (trapassato prossimo) with a past participle, as in “Avevo mangiato prima di partire” meaning “I had eaten before leaving.” Beyond forming compound tenses, avevo also describes past states or habitual actions, for example “Avevo fame” (I was hungry) or “Da bambino avevo tre amici.” The verb avere itself comes from Latin habēre, related to the family of Romance languages’ words for “to have.”

Conjugation note: In the imperfect tense, the forms are: io avevo, tu avevi, lui/lei aveva, noi avevamo, voi avevate, loro avevano. This contrasts with other tenses of avere, such as ebbi (passato remoto) or avrò (futuro semplice).

Usage considerations: Avevo is widely used in narrative and descriptive past contexts to indicate actions or states that occurred prior to another past event. It can appear in reported speech and conditionals when recounting a past perspective. It is important to distinguish avevo from related forms like avrei (conditional) andavrò (future).

Examples:

- Quando sono arrivato, avevo già mangiato. (When I arrived, I had already eaten.)

- Da giovane avevo una macchina vecchia. (As a youth I used to have a old car.)

See also: Avere (Italian verb), Trapassato prossimo, Italian grammar.